Who were some of your worst, rudest, and/or most ignorant customers?

Originally Posted by Shirtmaven

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I can have 5 great customers in a row. and then it is the one asshole that ruins my day..

+1

Originally Posted by MrDaniels

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Yes, but a lot of these persons described are not customers; they are thieves.

Exactly.

Not clothing, but I did record retailing for five years as my first job.

The lady who came into the Harrow store with a bee in her bonnet about something or other, claimed she knew one of the company directors and demanded discount. So the manager rang head office, and the director was actually there (it was a Saturday). He asked for her to escorted to the back of the store so he could speak to her on the phone...whereupon he let rip into her, we could all hear him shouting. She turned bright red, apologised to us all and left the store. We were left with explicit instructions that anyone else who tried the I know a director routine was told to **** off! (She did actually know him!)

The lady who when I ducked under the counter to go and get a CD case for her decided to grab hold of my arm. When I asked her what she was doing she replied that she thought I was trying to steal her handbag...I asked her to leave the shop.

The girl who returned a twelve inch single that was so warped it was obvious it had been left against a radiator or something equally hot, it had a 90 degree bend in it and wouldn't come out of the sleeve. She insisted it had been bought like that, despite the fact that it would have been almost impossible to actually put the item into a bag. Eventually she left refundless...

The guys who used to buy loads of reggae albums and then bring them back saying they were all faulty (which actually could well have been true as Jamaican pressings actually had bits of paper in the vinyl they were so roughly reprocessed). They didn't like it when I said we could only swap for the same titles, 'cos 'some people home tape and then swap for different titles. Not you guys obviously...

'

The mass brawl that occurred when a load of guys came into the Wembley branch drinking out of Watneys party sevens...


Had some girls with them, started getting a bit lewd, asked to leave, 1 took a swing at me, I fell into a customer who was browsing...he went apeshit and chased about five guys out of the shop having properly battered two of them in the space of a few seconds...

The woman who sent her son in with a signed blank cheque to buy some stuff, and couldn't see why I wouldn't accept it without her being there to sign it in front of me...

When I worked in Barnet a real acid casualty from the sixties came in.
(There was a massive residential mental health hospital nearby...) I had my area manager in and was concious of the fact that this guy in his purple cords, frizzed out hair and totally wack personality was quickly going to empty the shop of all customers. So I pre-empted him by asking what he was looking for. Luckily we didn't have it, but he wouldn't leave and started getting really weird. So I went out and started talking gibberish to him, cauliflower ears, hmmm, what's in your bag etc. Just any random stuff to scare him off. It worked and my area manager was very impressed...

Originally Posted by KingOfTheForum

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I agree with the above post. Some of these stories seem unrealistic and unnecessarily rude. I'll admit that I've gotten quite a few customers fired up, but it's always been because they were "copping an attitude" about something that they were wrong about, not because I just felt like being pedantic. My motto was that I'd go above and beyond for a customer UNTIL he or she became rude. After they became rude, I'd just focus in on following the rules, whether it was to the customer's advantage or not.
+1 Some of these make the salesperson sound like a total asshole. Clueless customer <=> rude customer, but apparently they're equally worthy of scorn and abuse.

a SA is just the face of a company and they're expected to &quot;represent&quot; it, but there's also a line that sometimes gets crossed where the SA starts to feel like they're just plain being abused in some way and they &quot;break the rules&quot; of the store and turn it into a one on one, personally.

As someone who's been a SA, I can say there's always a few moments where I risk my job by breaking character and just being a little rude, flirty, etc. It's human.

Originally Posted by sho'nuff

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if every word in this post is truth, then...

Thank you indeed. Every word true. No embellishments rendered. I was just at my wits end that day.

11.) A big tall guy (about a size 48T) in his mid 20s came in one day with an old sport jacket in his hands and he asked me to help him team up some pants, shirts, and ties with it. I had a look at the label inside the jacket: it was our house brand but the jacket was about 25 years old.

He told me he bought this jacket at Value Village for $19.99 and wanted to know what he could wear with it.

I didn't bother showing him any pants and shirts and ties and whatnot; instead, I asked him to put on the jacket.

I had no idea what size it was but, judging by how it looked on him, I would say it was a size 40R. I asked him to take it off and I measured his chest and overarm and he turned out to be a size 48T.

I told him he shouldn't wear that jacket because it was nowhere close to being his size.

He seemed surprised. "Oh. Really? I thought it fit quite well."

The jacket length just barely came down to the level of his navel and it needed at least an extra, oh, I don't know, 14 inches around the girth and the sleeves came down to about five inches above his wrists.

"It doesn't fit me? Are you sure?"

"I'm very sure. You shouldn't wear this even if it did fit you. The jacket is at least 25 years old. Why don't you buy a new one? I have lots in your size and we have a sale on right now."

"Oh. I don't know. I thought this fit me really quite well."

He took off his jacket, put it back inside the plastic grocery bag he was carrying and said, "Well, I'll have to think about it."

He left.

Stupid idiot.

Originally Posted by SuitMyself

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11.) A big tall guy (about a size 48T) in his mid 20s came in one day with an old sport jacket in his hands and he asked me to help him team up some pants, shirts, and ties with it. I had a look at the label inside the jacket: it was our house brand but the jacket was about 25 years old.

He told me he bought this jacket at Value Village for $19.99 and wanted to know what he could wear with it.

I didn't bother showing him any pants and shirts and ties and whatnot; instead, I asked him to put on the jacket.

I had no idea what size it was but, judging but how it looked on him, I would say it was a size 40R. I asked him to take it off and I measured his chest and overarm and he turned out to be a size 48T.

I told him he shouldn't wear that jacket because it was nowhere close to being his size.

He seemed surprised. "Oh. Really? I thought it fit quite well."

The jacket length just barely came down to the level of his navel and it needed at least an extra, oh, I don't know, 14 inches around the girth and the sleeves came down to about five inches above his wrists.

"It doesn't fit me? Are you sure?"

"I'm very sure. You shouldn't wear this even if it did fit you. The jacket is at least 25 years old. Why don't you buy a new one? I have lots in your size and we have a sale on right now."

"Oh. I don't know. I thought this fit me really quite well."

He took off his jacket, put it back inside the plastic grocery bag he was carrying and said, "Well, I'll have to think about it."

He left.

Stupid idiot.

Most of the other ones i can get on board with, but this? Dude is obviously broke as ****...deserves some sympathy, I'd think.

Originally Posted by Macallan9

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Most of the other ones i can get on board with, but this? Dude is obviously broke as ****...deserves some sympathy, I'd think.

Sympathy? No.

Tough love? Yes.

Proper fashion advice? Definitely.

New jacket? Most definitely.

Whatever. That story is just unbearably sad, and the more you post the more you come across as a supercilious blowhard. Sorry.

Originally Posted by literasyme

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Whatever. That story is just unbearably sad, and the more you post the more you come across as a supercilious blowhard. Sorry.

That's okay.

That's just how I am. I tell it like it is.

But . . . let's look at this another way: Would it had been better if I hadn't told him the jacket didn't fit? What if he was planning to wear it to, say, his girlfriend's birthday dinner or perhaps to a job interview? I honestly think I did him a huge favour.

I must be really lucky; I've been working in sales for 5 years now (first in fine art, now in tailoring) and I've never had these problems with customers.

Any clueless customers are willing to take advice and I've never really had any terrible complaints.

Originally Posted by SuitMyself

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That's okay.

That's just how I am. I tell it like it is.

But . . . let's look at this another way: Would it had been better if I hadn't told him the jacket didn't fit? What if he was planning to wear it to, say, his girlfriend's birthday dinner or perhaps to a job interview? I honestly think I did him a huge favour.

That's not my point. Bragging about it here and calling someone like that a "stupid idiot" is what shows a serious lack of class.

Originally Posted by literasyme

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That's not my point. Bragging about it here and calling someone like that a "stupid idiot" is what shows a serious lack of class.

How am I bragging?

What would you have done in that situation? What would you have told him or done for him?

There were these customers who were asking for a better price at a music instrument store! Oh, and they were Chinese (not racist).

So I unzipped my fly and showed them *******!

Keep these stories coming!